So I found it cool that the finale basically had a group of all-female characters who negotiated the peace treaty; was that deliberate? AK: Oh, you bet. We planned the finale from the beginning of the season. And since then, Time’s Up and #MeToo have come along and only bolstered our instincts about where we stand on the line of female empowerment and what we want to say about that. L’Rell is very mistreated and disrespected and demeaned over the course of the season. And we crafted all of the season knowing full well the reversal that we were setting up for the ending, which hopefully makes the reversal far more satisfying. Ultimately it comes down to these women seeing past all the ego and the violence to see a way of protecting the Klingon identity as a species, and also stopping the war. Also, Michael Burnham’s arc over the course of the season is that she started the war and also gets to end it, and finds allies in unlikely places. Obviously, L’Rell would never have been that ally to her until Burnham was able to use her history, past, and understanding to know that L’Rell had to be the one in power for the war to end.

So Captain Christopher Pike swoops in with a rather agile USS Enterprise. Tell me about the decision to jump into an Enterprise storyline, and will something involving the Enterprise be the dominant storyline in season 2? AK: People have a lot of questions about how we’re adhering to canon. The arrival of the Enterprise suggests they’re going to begin to get answers. Those answers will not come immediately, they will trickle out over the course of the season. Here’s what I can tell you: The show is still called Discovery. The show is not called Enterprise. So figuring out a way for the Enterprise to work in that framework is the task of our story-breaking for season 2 right now.

Will the new season be more serialized or less serialized than season 1? AK: As serialized. Although one of the things we found was people really loved was the Pahvo mission, the away mission that we did. And that was more of a standalone even though it existed in the context of a larger story. So it will be serialized, yes, always, but we do love the idea of getting to do individual episodes in the context of a serialized storyline, and you can look forward to more of that.

What else can you tell us that fans are going to be wondering after that finale? AK: Obviously, they’re going to be wondering who’s on board the Enterprise. I think there will be some surprises there. We will maintain consistency with canon, but there will be surprises.

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5 Comments:

I hope we see some more of Phillipa in the next season, mostly because I’d love to see more of the wonderful Michelle Yeoh. But also an interesting character, surely you can’t just let the former emperor of the Terran empire go free without there being some consequence.

We’ve absolutely loved Discovery, not just for the female focus (which never seemed forced – these were genuinely well written characters who just happened to be female), but also for baulking the Star Trek trend of focussing on stoic, wise, brave captains. We looked forward to each Tuesday (then Monday) for each new episode.

They planned that finale from the beginning? Damn, if I was them I wouldn’t admit that. The resolution to the war was woefully done and seems universally criticised. I really liked the show, but story wise it was an absolute mess and didn’t really follow through on everything. They started a story they didn’t have the budget to complete. I think they really need to retool the show a lot for season 2.